Law students can now call North Haven campus home after the the School of Law building moved campuses.

The old law building on the Mount Carmel Campus has been renovated into the Center for Communications and Engineering.

School of Law Dean Jennifer Gerarda Brown is thrilled to move into the new building.

“The whole building is so thoughtfully designed to facilitate collaboration and learning,” Brown said. “It’s beautiful now, and will look even better when it’s filled with the sights and sounds of a new school year underway.”

The new School of Law building is three floors and includes a library, courtrooms, classrooms, a law clinic and plenty of spaces for students to study and congregate.

The opening celebration for the new law school building will be held on Oct. 1. Brown said the ceremonial courtroom is still under construction, but should be completed by that time.

Brown said she has heard mostly positive comments toward the new law building, the only negative being poor cell phone service.

“People are excited to be here,” Brown said. “The building is stunning and there are plenty of new opportunities for students.”

Sophomore criminal justice major Anna Scionti believes it is unnecessary for the law building to move to another campus.

“There are three different campuses now and I think it would be more convenient if all the buildings were together in the same place,” Scionti said.

Scionti said she hopes a shuttle is set up for students who do not have cars to travel to the North Haven campus.

Brown said she has not heard of any plans for a shuttle to and from North Haven, but hopes a shuttle will be put into place for undergraduates with classes in the new building.

“A shuttle would be very helpful and I would like to see Quinnipiac undergraduates who are interested with the law come down to our building,” Brown said. “I think the more they understand that our university has an excellent law school the more interested they may be to come and study here.”

Brown said the transition to the new building was a long process due to moving books and shelving. The transition began right after graduation and was completed in August.

[media-credit name=”Amanda Hoskins” align=”alignnone” width=”268″]
[/media-credit]

The old law building has been renamed the Center for Communications and Engineering. Dean of the School of Communications Lee Kamlet said the transition was easy.

The School of Law officially moved out of the building around June 1, allowing the School of Communications to begin moving in, Kamlet said.

The new School of Communications building is twice the size of the Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center.

Kamlet said the Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center was originally created for a population of more than 400 communications students. Over the years, the amount of students has doubled, creating the need for a bigger space.

“In the past some students in the School of Communications never took a single course inside the McMahon center,” Kamlet said. “But with the new classrooms and space each student will have at least one class in there.”

Offices originally used for the School of Law were transformed into classrooms over the summer, while the law library was cleared of all its books.

Kamlet hopes to create a community for students in the School of Communications where they can study and hang out, something he said was difficult with the small space in Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center.

“I want this building to become students’ home on campus and enhance their learning experience,” he said.

The newsroom and studio will remain in Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center for the next couple of years. Kamlet said eventually everything will be moved into the new building.

Kamlet believes the transition will be positive for students, even with the split between the two buildings.

[media-credit id=2028 align=”alignnone” width=”268″][/media-credit]

“There are going to be some inconveniences, having classes mostly in one [building] and the studios in the other,” Kamlet said. “But we are only separated by the Quad, so it’s not as if the buildings are miles apart.”

Sophomore Public Relations major Alex Danieli said she is glad the School of Communications is expanding at a fast rate.

“I’m happy that [the School of Communications] is going to have a centralized place for its classes,” Danieli said. “I think putting everything in one building would really help connect classes and students and bring the majors together.”

Junior civil engineering major Kevin Bloomquist and sophomore engineering major Nate Drisdelle agree that moving Engineering into the new building with Communications is a “step in the right direction.”

“It’s not a huge deal for [engineering] be lumped in with [communications], but I think we should each have our own building to give [engineering and communications] students more room,” Bloomquist said.

Drisdelle hopes that eventually engineering will get their own building, even if they have to move to another campus.

“We have access to the basement now where all our machines will be moved to, but I think even if [Engineering] moved to North Haven it would be better for both schools,” Drisdelle said.